Why Women Don’t Lick Their Babies Clean After Childbirth

Some humans have even been observed licking their newborn babies clean.
Among mammals, the instinct to lick the newborn clean exists for very practical reasons.
In fact, licking occurs "for a combination of reasons," says Lee Dugatkin, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Louisville and co-author with Lyudmila Trut of the book, "How to Tame a Fox and Build a Dog," published in 2017.
Another reason, Dugatkin explains, relates to the mother recognizing the baby.
There are all sorts of bonding behaviors that go on between mother and offspring," and licking may be one of those "early chemo-tactile links" that the mother has to her baby.
So why don't human mothers do it?
Because of the stimulation provided by a long labor, licking after birth is less necessary, Montagu concluded.
The organ systems of newborns, such as the respiratory, digestive and genito-urinary systems, don't need stimulation after birth to function properly, they wrote.
Please Don't Eat the Baby So, although humans don't typically lick their offspring as other mammals do, that doesn't mean we keep our muzzles away from newborns.
It's just what we do with babies.

Cats do it. Dogs do it. Giraffes and lions and lemurs do it, too. Some humans have even been observed licking their newborn babies clean. But for the most part, human mothers don’t respond in this way after giving birth. Ever wondered why?

Among mammals, the instinct to lick the newborn clean exists for very practical reasons.

For one, licking removes the amniotic fluid from the new baby, according to veterinary professors Donald M. Broom and Andrew F. Fraser in their book Domestic Animal Behavior and Welfare. This keeps the infant warmer because thick amniotic fluid conducts heat away from the body. But licking also stimulates the newborn and draws the baby’s attention toward the mother, they said.

But if you were to ask the baby-licking mammals themselves, they might have a variety of other reasons right at the ends of their nonexistent fingertips — perhaps safety, cleanliness and nourishment.

It’s possible that the licking cleans up smells that signal “a newborn was here,” protecting the infant from predators, and that eating the placenta and amniotic fluid provides nourishment and replenishes energy lost in labor.

“One would be health-related — removing any nasty creatures on the surface of the skin, such as bacteria, viruses, that sort of thing,” Dugatkin says. Another reason, Dugatkin explains, relates to the mother recognizing the baby. “It may be the start of a chemical recognition system between mothers and offspring. Licking is one way to get that sorted out. There are all sorts of bonding behaviors that go on between mother and offspring,” and licking may be one of those…

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